How TIM and Ericsson are building up their IoT portfolios in Brazil

Telecom operator TIM and Swedish telecoms supplier Ericsson are accelerating their investments in private networks and IoT projects in Brazil, executives from the two companies told BNamericas.

TIM is set to announce various new projects, particularly in public lighting/smart cities, which is one of the core pillars of the company's B2B investments.

At present, TIM connects over 100,000 sensors for smart lighting services across Brazil, the telco's corporate solutions director, Paulo Humberto Gouvea, told BNamericas.

In partnership with M2M Telemetria and with Qualcomm, TIM last month announced a smart lighting project in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, using 4G NB-IoT technology for IPSul, the concessionaire responsible for public lighting in the city.

 In all, more than 22,000 smart light fixtures were installed and activated on the main avenues and streets of the city, encompassing approximately 20% of all lighting points in the city.

The companies claim that this is one of the largest initiatives for this type of wireless connectivity for smart lighting in Latin America.

In April, the telco announced a new partnership with Engie for smart lighting in Curitiba, capital of Paraná state, adding to a similar team-up to the one the duo already has for Petrolina in Pernambuco state.

The Curitiba project came about after Engie signed a public-private partnership (PPP) contract with the municipal government for the operation, maintenance and expansion of the city's lighting infrastructure for 23 years. 

The partnership with TIM covers around 45,000 management points for smart lighting distributed throughout the city.

In Petrolina, the deal for which was announced last October, TIM's contract with Engie comprises an IoT project to operate 5,000 smart lights in the city. 

According to Gouvea, who spoke to BNamericas during the recent Painel Telebrasil Innovation event, TIM also connects over 20,000 lighting points in Santa Luiza, Minas Gerais state.

The telco has actively mapped out PPPs for further contract opportunities, with or without its partners, the executive said.

“Take Engie, for example. We started with them on a smaller project. Now we've closed a bigger one, with the potential to become even larger. Because in their strategic plan, they won’t be limited to those projects,” said Gouveia, hinting at new initiatives with Engie.

“All of the PPPs we're looking at are linked to large groups,” he added. 

In November 2021, TIM announced a 5G smart grid project for Enel São Paulo. 

That network uses spectrum temporarily assigned by regulator Anatel in the 3.5GHz band, in what was reportedly the first 5G standalone power project in Latin America.

The project relied on antennas and radio equipment provided by Ericsson, chipsets and fixed wireless access customer premises equipment provided by Qualcomm, outdoor and indoor wireless equipment from Chinese company Fibocom and Taiwanese company CBN, and mobile devices from Lenovo’s Motorola.

Juganu, an Israeli manufacturer of smart public lighting, now has its equipment installed on 250 light poles across 11 Brazilian cities, including Curitiba, the CEO of the company in Brazil, Bruno Gemus, was reported as saying by Mobile Time.

Juganu's goal is to reach the end of the year with 3,000 poles connected.

In addition to smart cities/public lighting, TIM’s B2B strategy is focused on agribusiness, health, transportation, logistics and mining.

ERICSSON

Ericsson reports having over a dozen projects related to private networks and IoT in Brazil, Murilo Barbosa, the company’s VP of business in the country, told BNamericas.

The provider has not given details of these projects, but the executive said that one of the new initiatives underway involves a major mining company and the project is being carried out with a local telco.

Barbosa also mentions a project with a local port as a new private network initiative in which Ericsson is involved.

The company has been looking at telcos as resellers and integrators of its 5G radio equipment for enterprise and industrial applications in Latin America, Rodrigo Dienstmann, CEO of Ericsson for the Southern Cone, previously told BNamericas.

One of them is Chile’s Entel, which will integrate Ericsson’s private 5G standalone solution into its own offering. In other words, Entel will be a distributor, reseller and integrator of Ericsson’s 5G equipment for enterprises.

In Brazil, América Móvil’s Embratel/Claro is another example of a telco working as a distributor and integrator for Ericsson in the private sector.

The two América Móvil group companies brought Ericsson equipment into the private network developed at a Nestlé factory.

Ericsson, Claro and Embratel were also responsible for a project to deploy a 5G SA private network at WEG’s factory in Santa Catarina state.